Supercritical Fluid Technologies, Inc.

Supercritical Fluid Technologies, Inc has been a worldwide industry leader in Supercritical Fluid Extraction and High Pressure Chemistry for more than 30 years.

Our leading edge patented and proprietary technologies are used worldwide for a variety of applications by more than 800 organizations, including government research centers, top university science and engineering programs, and Fortune 500 companies.

Founded in 1994 by Dr. Kenneth James, who received his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry with a concentration in Organic Chemistry and Analytical Spectroscopy from the University of Delaware, Supercritical Fluid Technologies (SFT) has been an innovator in the field from the start. Introducing one of the first view cells permitting direct observation of material solubility in supercritical CO₂, and pioneering the development of lower cost entry-level extractors and reactors that would not sacrifice performance, SFT has helped expand the application of supercritical fluid extraction technology, and made it more accessible than ever before.

SFT has also kept pace with changing technology, making improvements to our existing products, developing new products, and working with customers to create custom systems for specialized applications. From our pilot scale equipment designed specifically for the extraction of natural products, to extractors and reactors for teaching labs and analytical research, to full scale production and large custom systems such as a 35,000 psi bio reactor for alternative fuels research or a highly customized SCWO system for the US Department of Defense, SFT has a full range of products and capabilities to meet the most exacting standards of clients large and small.

We also offer various laboratory services, including application feasibility studies and contract research to aid in establishing the relevance of SF techniques to specific applications, method and process development and optimization, and lab scale material processing.

Our worldwide network of representatives and distributors is always available to respond to our customers, and parts and accessories for all SFT equipment are stocked at our headquarters in Newark, Delaware and key distribution points around the world.

Lithium-ion Battery Recycling – Recovering the Valuable Metals

The demand for lithium-ion batteries being produced for use in consumer electronics and electric vehicles has exploded in recent years. This trend is expected to continue as more and more states are pushing, and in some cases legislating the move to all-electric cars in the not-too-distant future. Ultimately this will create a growing need for technologies to recover and recycle the materials used in these batteries. Metals used in lithium-ion batteries are both valuable and toxic. This raises the question of how the metals in these batteries can be safely recovered and reused.

Jiakai Zhang and Gisele Azimi in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, have been investigating the use of Supercritical CO2 along with several key modifiers to enhance the recovery of these metals. Their study “develops a supercritical fluid extraction process using supercritical CO2 solvent with tributyl phosphate–nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide adduct to recover the four metals from the LIBs of electric vehicles.”